Friday, 16 November 2012

And then a low built out over the Arctic. The swell of all North Sea swells. So we rang C4 and asked if we could delay for a week, all good, so we hung about. Twiddling our thumbs unable to remove our eyes from the charts and we watched whilst the favourable west winds turned northerly and climbed the beaufort scale. We got scared, what if we had delayed for nothing. It arrived as did a day spent driving and searching for shelter, nothing surfable. Home, dejected and hungry, bed.

Would tomorrow deliver? The swell had dropped considerably but the wind was good as we drove south. At first sight we knew we'd scored but not at the size promised. The forecasted twelve foot at twelve seconds would be well and truly off the scale at this treasured place. But whatever the predictions said the turnstile did indeed spin its dreams.

So we went tripping up North to find some gold. The end game for Beyond the Scars the C4 sponsored follow-up to Uncommon Ideals. A classic trip with a cool crew. Frame-grabs include surfers Fergal Smith, Gabe Davies, Sandy Kerr, Mitch Corbett, and Matt Smith.

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

A cold, grey, December day in 2011. We arrived at our destination in the freezing drizzle. It looked surf-able, but only just. Gabe made his way over the mist-shrouded reef, right at the point that it turned on – it was perfect timing. Surfing's like that.

Had the sun revealed itself, Snoozer would've been in glorious technicolour – but it didn't – hence the grey-ness and grain.... it was shot at about thirty-six-trillion ISO.

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Mats takes ridiculously good photographs and hails from Sweden but now resides in Stavanger on the west coast of Norway.

So whereabouts are you based?
I am originally from a tiny island called Gotland, situated on the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Sweden. Nowadays I live in Stavanger, on the south-west coast of Norway. I really like it here, a buzzing town with great transportation possibilites to the ”outside world” but with waves just a few minutes drive away. Great surfing, great city and very close to the mountains.

Favourite spot to surf in the North Sea?
I've only surfed Stavanger so far, but would very much like to head north to surf Lofoten och Stad here in Norway. These breaks seem really good. Stavanger offers alot of variety which makes the coast surfable for almost any swell direction.

Favourite subject to shoot?
Skateboarding, bmx, snowboarding and surfing are without doubt my favourite subjects. I also enjoy travel photography and I always carry my camera with me when out travelling.

What's in your camera bag and what can't you live without?
I shoot with a Nikon D300, a bunch of prime lenses and strobes from Nikon and Elinchrom. I also shoot some rolls of film with my Hasselblad 500C/M. I would not survive a long time without my 35mm lens (50mm equiv). I just love that focal length. Also, I crave for potato chips, swedish meatballs and watching a sunrise over misty mountains.

Doggerland.

The North Sea is a source of food, a source of fuel – oil and gas, a playground for catching waves or simply a mass of water that needs to be navigated. Few are aware its these cold grey waters that cover a prehistoric landscape that once joined England to Europe. Yet between 18000 and 5500 BC, global warming raised sea levels to the extent that this area known as Doggerland was engulfed by water and the area that had been home to mankind disappeared. This entire land sank beneath the North Sea. Is it this former land that we North Sea surfers now surf.

We are the Doggerland groms, heavies, hippies and kooks.

Arthur Lavooy.

Arthur's our Dutch connection. Living in Middelburg, Zeeland in the south of the Netherlands a windsurfer and skater from the age of 12, these days Arthur spends his time surfing and looking for those chocolate brown barrels that the North Sea throws at the Dutch coast.

Arthur's been a keen photographer for the last 5 years snapping some of Hollands finest surfers and he's always on it when the 'Nord Zee' is a pumpin'.

Jez Goffin.

One half of the founding members of the project Jez has been photographing boardsports culture before boardsports had a culture. A talented photographer based in the North East of the England check his other work out here...